Police Story Information

Police Story is an anthology television crime drama that aired on NBC from 1973 through 1978. The show was the brainchild of author and former policeman Joseph Wambaugh and represented a major step forward in the realistic depiction of police work and violence on network TV. It was produced by David Gerber and Mel Swope.

Although it was an anthology, there were certain things that all episodes had in common; for instance, the main character in each episode was a police officer. The setting was always Los Angeles and the characters always worked for some branch of the LAPD. Notwithstanding the anthology format, there were recurring characters. Scott Brady appeared in more than a dozen episodes as "Vinnie," a former cop who, upon retirement, had opened a bar catering to police officers, and who acted as a sort of Greek chorus during the run of the series, commenting on the characters and plots. Tony Lo Bianco and Don Meredith made several appearances as Robbery-Homicide Division partners Tony Calabrese and Bert Jameson. Other recurring characters included surveillance specialist Joe LaFrieda, played by Vic Morrow, and vice officer turned homicide detective Charlie Czonka, played by James Farentino. Chuck Connors also starred in various episodes.

The anthology format allowed the show to try out characters and settings for series development, and, during its broadcast run, Police Story generated three spin-offs. A first-season episode, "The Gamble," starring Angie Dickinson, became the pilot for the successful Police Woman series, which ran from 1974-1978. "The Return of Joe Forrester," a second-season episode starring Lloyd Bridges, was developed into the weekly series Joe Forrester. Finally, "A Chance to Live," a special episode from the fifth season starring David Cassidy, was spun off into the series Man Undercover. That series didn't do as well, and lasted only ten episodes.

In later seasons, perhaps because of the expense of maintaining the anthology format on a weekly basis, Police Story became a series of irregularly scheduled TV movies.

Police Story was a precursor to later shows such as NBC's Hill Street Blues (1981-1987), Law & Order (1990-2010), ABC's NYPD Blue and NBC's Homicide: Life on the Street (both latters started in 1993).

Guest stars

Numerous actors, sports figures and former real-life cops who were familiar to audiences in the 1960s and 1970s made appearances on the series, including Andrew Stevens, Danny Bonaduce, Ed Asner, Eve McVeagh, David Janssen, Claude Akins, Robert Stack, Ahna Capri, Mike Connors, Alex Cord, Stuart Whitman, Lenore Kasdorf, David Cassidy, John Saxon, Kurt Russell, Cameron Mitchell, Martin Milner, Vince Edwards, Robert Forster, William Shatner, Dean Stockwell, Jan-Michael Vincent, Alex Cord, George Maharis, Wayne Maunder, Howard Duff, Chad Everett, Don Meredith, Steve Lawrence, Gabe Kaplan, Robert Goulet, Sylvester Stallone, Joseph Campanella, Michael Cole (2 episodes), Joe Garagiola, Stephen McNally and Eddie Egan.

Series One Episodes

Episode #	Episode title	Original airdate
Pilot	Slow Boy (2 hours) (with Sgt. Joe LaFrieda)	20 Mar 73
1-1	Dangerous Games (with Charlie Czonka)	2 Oct 73
1-2	Requiem for an Informer (with Jameson & Calabrese & Vinnie)	9 Oct 73
1-3	The Ten Year Honeymoon	23 Oct 73
1-4	The Violent Homecoming	30 Oct 73
1-5	The Ho Chi Minh Trail	6 Nov 73
1-6	Collision Course	20 Nov 73
1-7	Death on Credit	27 Nov 73
1-8	The Big Walk	4 Dec 73
1-9	Man on the Rack	11 Dec 73
1-10	Line of Fire	18 Dec 73
1-11	Chain of Command	8 Jan 74
1-12	Countdown (1) (with Sgt. Joe LaFrieda & Vinnie the bartender)	15 Jan 74
1-13	Countdown (2) (with Sgt. Joe LaFrieda & Vinnie the bartender)	22 Jan 74
1-14	Cop in the Middle (with Vinnie the bartender)	29 Jan 74
1-15	The Ripper	12 Feb 74
1-16	Country Boy	19 Feb 74
1-17	Big John Morrison [aka The Hunters] (with Jameson & Calabrese) (90 min)	26 Feb 74
1-18	Wyatt Earp Syndrome (with Vinnie the bartender)	5 Mar 74
1-19	Fingerprint	12 Mar 74
1-20	Chief	19 Mar 74
1-21	The Gamble	26 Mar 74

Series Two Episodes

Episode #	Episode title	Original airdate
2-1	A Dangerous Age (with Vinnie the bartender)	10 Sep 74
2-2	Requiem for C.Z. Smith (with Charlie Czonka)	17 Sep 74
2-3	Robbery: 48 Hours	24 Sep 74
2-4	Fathers and Sons	1 Oct 74
2-5	A World Full of Hurt	8 Oct 74
2-6	Glamour Boy (with Jameson & Calabrese)	29 Oct 74
2-7	Across the Line (with Vinnie the bartender)	12 Nov 74
2-8	Wolf (with Vinnie the bartender)	19 Nov 74
2-9	Love, Mabel	26 Nov 74
2-10	Explosion (with Jameson & Calabrese)	3 Dec 74
2-11	Capt. Hook	17 Dec 74
2-12	Incident in the Kill Zone (with Vinnie the bartender)	7 Jan 75
2-13	Headhunter (with Vinnie the bartender)	14 Jan 75
2-14	Year of the Dragon (1)	21 Jan 75
2-15	Year of the Dragon (2)	28 Jan 75
2-16	To Steal a Million	4 Feb 75
2-17	Sniper (with Calabrese)	11 Feb 75
2-18	The Execution	18 Feb 75
2-19	The Man in the Shadows	25 Feb 75
2-20	War Games	4 Mar 75
2-21	The Witness (with Jameson)	11 Mar 75
2-22	The Return of Joe Forrester (90 min)	6 May 75

Series Three Episodes

Episode #	Episode title	Original airdate
3-1	Officer Needs Help	9 Sep 75
3-2	The Cutting Edge	16 Sep 75
3-3	A Community of Victims	23 Sep 75
3-4	The Losing Game (with Vinnie the bartender)	30 Sep 75
3-5	The Cut Man Caper (90 min)	28 Oct 75
3-6	Face for a Shadow	7 Nov 75
3-7	The Test of Brotherhood (with Vinnie the bartender)	14 Nov 75
3-8	The Empty Weapon	21 Nov 75
3-9	Little Boy Lost (with Vinnie the bartender)	28 Nov 75
3-10	Vice: Twenty-Four Hours	5 Dec 75
3-11	Breaking Point	12 Dec 75
3-12	Company Man	19 Dec 75
3-13	Spanish Class	2 Jan 76
3-14	Odyssey of Death (1) (with Vinnie the bartender)	9 Jan 76
3-15	Odyssey of Death (2) (with Vinnie the bartender)	16 Jan 76
3-16	The Other Side of the Fence	23 Jan 76
3-17	Fifty Cents, First Half Hour"?One Dollar and Seventy-Five Cents All Day	30 Jan 76
3-18	Firebird (with Vinnie the bartender)	6 Feb 76
3-19	The Long Ball	13 Feb 76
3-20	Eamon Kinsella Royce	20 Feb 76
3-21	Officer Dooly (with Vinnie the bartender)	5 Mar 76
3-22	Open City	12 Mar 76

Series Four Episodes

Episode #	Episode title	Original airdate
4-1	Payment Deferred	21 Sep 76
4-2	Bought and Paid For	5 Oct 76
4-3	Two Frogs on a Mongoose	12 Oct 76
4-4	The Other Side of the Badge	26 Oct 76
4-5	Three Days to Thirty	9 Nov 76
4-6	Trash Detail, Front and Center	16 Nov 76
4-7	Thanksgiving	23 Nov 76
4-8	Monster Manor	30 Nov 76
4-9	Oxford Gray	7 Dec 76
4-10	The Jar (1)	14 Dec 76
4-11	The Jar (2)	21 Dec 76
4-12	Trial Board	4 Jan 77
4-13	Spitfire	11 Jan 77
4-14	Nightmare on a Sunday Morning	18 Jan 77
4-15	The Malflores	25 Jan 77
4-16	The Blue Fog	1 Feb 77
4-17	Hard Rock Brown	15 Feb 77
4-18	End of the Line	22 Feb 77
4-19	One of Our Cops Is Crazy	1 Mar 77
4-20	Ice Time	8 Mar 77
4-21	The Six Foot Stretch	22 Mar 77
4-22	Prime Rib	5 Apr 77

Series Five Episodes (Two Hour Films)

Episode #	Episode title	Original airdate
5-1	Pressure Point (aka Trigger Point)	27 Sep 77
5-2	Stigma	9 Nov 77
5-3	River of Promises	14 Jan 78
5-4	Day of Terror, Night of Fear	4 Mar 78
5-5	The Broken Badge	19 Mar 78
5-6	No Margin for Error	30 Apr 78
5-7	A Chance to Live	28 May 78
5-8	A Cry for Justice	23 May 79
5-9	Confessions of a Lady Cop	2 Apr 80

Special Three Hour Episode

Episode #	Episode title	Original airdate
1-1	The Freeway Killings (with Jameson & Calabrese)	3 May 87

Series Six Episodes (Two Hour Films, now on ABC)

Episode #	Episode title	Original airdate
1-1	The Cop Killers	29 Oct 88
1-2	Gladiator School	5 Nov 88
1-3	The Watch Commander	12 Nov 88
1-4	Burnout	26 Nov 88
1-5	Monster Manor [remake of 30 Nov 76]	3 Dec 88

Awards and nominations

Two episodes received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Episode in a Television Series: "Requiem for an Informer," written by Sy Salkowitz (from the first season), and "Requiem for C.Z. Smith," by Robert E. Collins (second season). In 1976, the show won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series.

DVD release

On September 6, 2011, Shout! Factory (under license from Sony Pictures) released season 1 of Police Story on DVD in Region 1.